I'm not sure if this should be in this forum, or in the Raising Chicks forum... it's a little of both.
12 days ago we brought home 6 chicks of varying ages - 6 days to 3-1/2 weeks. I got them from a certified NPIP breeder. They're inside (basement) in a brooder with a mother hen pad. They took to it like champs - the littlest pushing toward the back and the 2 older ones hanging out closer to the front.
One chick, a Speckled Sussex, behaved normally (I think... in hindsight now I'm not 100% sure) for about 18 hours after we brought her home. Then the strangeness begins.
First, her wings drooped a bit and the feathers along her neck and upper back started standing up straight in the air. But she was acting normally. By day 3 she just seemed "different" but I couldn't say why, other than her weird feather arrangement. She was just short of 2 weeks old when we brought her home. We had some that were 6 days old, and she seemed to be sleeping more than they were. But not enough for me to think a whole lot of it. Day 4 - she started openinng and closing her mouth when she was sleeping. I turned on a humidifier and put some Nutri-drench in the water. By day 5 she seemed "wobbly" and her breathing didn't seem quite right, so on the advice of another BYC member I started her on Tylan-50. For the next 7 days she's been no worse, but not much better - although her wings don't droop anymore. She still hangs out under the MHP more than the others. She exhibits the following symptoms, but NONE OF THEM ON A REGULAR BASIS (and all of them she does less than she used to): sneezing, opening and closing her mouth when breathing, shaking her head, generally she's weaker than the others. runny nose. At one point she had a lot (and I mean a LOT) of food caked on the roof of her mouth, but once I cleaned that up and switched to a coarser crumble food, that stopped. One morning her eye had crusted closed, but I washed it out with saline and it's been perfect since. Her eyes look good; her ears look exactly the same as the others. She is not lethargic... she's running around with the others but just seems to tire out faster.
So, what am I missing? Would a respiratory virus take this long to work its way through her system? If so, why are (after 12 days) none of the others showing a sign of getting the same thing? This is my second time with chicks (round one was uneventful) and I have in 5 years of chicken keeping never had a respiratory problem in our hens. The thing that's the most obvious about her is the weird way that her feathers stand up on her neck and upper back. It's not the "sick-chicken-puff-up" look, but it's not normal looking, for sure.
Also, I was planning on moving the brooder out into the run (within a protected area) so that we could brood with the big girls (I did this last time and loved it) but now I'm dragging my feet because I don't want her to expose my current flock to something. If it's viral, how long might it last (assuming she doesn't take a turn for the worse)? And if it's not viral, what else could it be?
Thanks in advance for any insight!
12 days ago we brought home 6 chicks of varying ages - 6 days to 3-1/2 weeks. I got them from a certified NPIP breeder. They're inside (basement) in a brooder with a mother hen pad. They took to it like champs - the littlest pushing toward the back and the 2 older ones hanging out closer to the front.
One chick, a Speckled Sussex, behaved normally (I think... in hindsight now I'm not 100% sure) for about 18 hours after we brought her home. Then the strangeness begins.
First, her wings drooped a bit and the feathers along her neck and upper back started standing up straight in the air. But she was acting normally. By day 3 she just seemed "different" but I couldn't say why, other than her weird feather arrangement. She was just short of 2 weeks old when we brought her home. We had some that were 6 days old, and she seemed to be sleeping more than they were. But not enough for me to think a whole lot of it. Day 4 - she started openinng and closing her mouth when she was sleeping. I turned on a humidifier and put some Nutri-drench in the water. By day 5 she seemed "wobbly" and her breathing didn't seem quite right, so on the advice of another BYC member I started her on Tylan-50. For the next 7 days she's been no worse, but not much better - although her wings don't droop anymore. She still hangs out under the MHP more than the others. She exhibits the following symptoms, but NONE OF THEM ON A REGULAR BASIS (and all of them she does less than she used to): sneezing, opening and closing her mouth when breathing, shaking her head, generally she's weaker than the others. runny nose. At one point she had a lot (and I mean a LOT) of food caked on the roof of her mouth, but once I cleaned that up and switched to a coarser crumble food, that stopped. One morning her eye had crusted closed, but I washed it out with saline and it's been perfect since. Her eyes look good; her ears look exactly the same as the others. She is not lethargic... she's running around with the others but just seems to tire out faster.
So, what am I missing? Would a respiratory virus take this long to work its way through her system? If so, why are (after 12 days) none of the others showing a sign of getting the same thing? This is my second time with chicks (round one was uneventful) and I have in 5 years of chicken keeping never had a respiratory problem in our hens. The thing that's the most obvious about her is the weird way that her feathers stand up on her neck and upper back. It's not the "sick-chicken-puff-up" look, but it's not normal looking, for sure.
Also, I was planning on moving the brooder out into the run (within a protected area) so that we could brood with the big girls (I did this last time and loved it) but now I'm dragging my feet because I don't want her to expose my current flock to something. If it's viral, how long might it last (assuming she doesn't take a turn for the worse)? And if it's not viral, what else could it be?
Thanks in advance for any insight!
